


38th

by obnimi



Category: Hunter X Hunter
Genre: Abusive Parents, F/M, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder - PTSD, Psychotropic Drugs, main character is a survivor too
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-03-09
Updated: 2021-03-09
Packaged: 2021-03-17 15:47:30
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,411
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29719500
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/obnimi/pseuds/obnimi
Summary: Where Octavia has "anger management issues" and Kurapika is her new bodyguard."You really want to know how I feel, Kurapika?!" Shouted the brunette as tears streamed down her face. "I feel like I'm in one of those stupid post-apocalyptic novels where there is a bunch of idiots who believe to be the last people on earth and then another bunch of idiots who believed the same pops out of nowhere." She sniffed a couple of times feeling that tingling sensation in the tip of her fingers. "Your fight is my fight too."
Relationships: Kurapika (Hunter X Hunter)/Original Female Character(s), Kurapika/Reader
Comments: 1
Kudos: 6





	38th

**Author's Note:**

> The story takes place between the YorkShin City arc and the Dark Continent Expedition arc.  
> All the dialogues in bold are meant to be in Kurta's language.

**_Prologue_ **

The rusty gate slowly opened in front of him, revealing a well-kept garden and a red brick mansion.  
Quite humble compared with the Nostrade’s one, definitely more his style.  
After the Yorkshin City auction, things started to fall apart for his previous boss and Kurapika hadn’t felt the need of adding more weight on his back than what he already had.

He promised himself not to accept any more teenage girl-related works, but the salary was extremely high and, after some researches, he discovered that the employer had made some _interesting purchases_ on the black market. There was no correlation with nor current or previous mafia activities and there was very little information about his duties.  
Quite weird, but there were no red flags.  
  
The employer was a retired explorer who was now working as an academic researcher, described by the Sengi Guld’s agent as “extremely paranoid and anxious when it comes to his beloved daughter’s wellbeing.”  
Kurapika could definitely handle a paranoid father and a repressed daughter.

  
His eyes wandered through the courtyard looking for the smallest hint of a manic collector, but all he could notice were broken pots, a couple of crocked benches, and a burned part of the soil. Even tho the mansion was massive, the garden looked like any other common garden, with no extravagant buildings, no impressive flowers, no statues just a bunch of anonymous flowers and trees.

How could an explorer have so little care about the nature he was surrounding his house with?  
Kurapika shook his head: gardening had nothing to do with the job he was applying for, he had no need to question his employer’s aesthetical taste.  
  
It just looked sad.  
But so he was.  
  
“Don’t ask questions if you can’t deal with the answer.” He moved his gaze in the direction the voice was coming.  
A woman stood in front of the mansion’s entrance, a crooked smile and some gardening shears in her right hand.  
  


“And by the way, _the child_ has some serious anger outburst, trust me it will be such a waste of flowers.”  
What child?  
And why that woman could easily understand what he was thinking about?  
  
“I’m Fedora, the housekeeper.” Started with a smile. “I’ve been working for the Kierchner for years.” Kurapika arched a brow.  
  
“You have to be the new bodyguard, right?” The blonde nodded. “Great! Roland is out of town at the moment, but he left me all the instructions to give you…?” Fedora gave him a questioning look.  
  
“Kurapika.”

“Come! I’ll show you around.”

Did they trust him enough to hire him without any kind of test?  
  
“Dealing with Octavia is the test. Usually all the people we hire run away within a week.” There was a sad undertone in her words.  
  
“Octavia?”  
  
“She’s Roland's daughter. You’ll meet her as soon her therapy is over.” Fedora sighed as she stepped into the living room. It was quite modern, with minimal furniture and a lot of plants. The housekeeper sat on the black couch and patted the empty seat next to her.  
  
“Here, Kurapika. I’m going to give you some information about your duties as Octavia’s bodyguard.” She gave him a big smile.

  
“Octavia is Roland’s foster daughter, she joined us when she was around 9. I know very little about her biological parents… but what I do know is that something dreadful happened to her.” Kurapika listened carefully trying to not show any signs of discomfort to Fedora.  
  
“I swear she’s not that bad, she just has her _moments_.” Fedora must care so much about her. “Roland is still figuring out what’s wrong with her, here is her medication’s timetable, you have to make sure she takes all of it.”  
Kurapika’s gaze wandered through a list of tranquilizers and psychotropics drugs longer than her years of life.

“Keep her company, if she feels like it. And don’t hurt her too much if you have to keep up with one of her _tantrums_.” Fedora sighed. “She’s not allowed to go out, if she needs something, you have to get it for her.” So Octavia was basically trapped in her own house, but she wasn’t described as a talkative being, which meant he could easily use some of the spare time to work without being bothered. And it was great.  
  
“Last but not least, she can go everywhere in the house but the basement.” Kurapika nodded again.  
His focus wasn’t on Octavia at all, his gaze studying every single detail in the room but all he could find were plants and books. Maybe the information on Hunter’s website was fake, it was possible that someone paid a Hacker Hunter to play tricks on him. Someone who needs to save time.  
  
Someone with a great amount of money who just lost someone.  
  


Kurapika clenched his fingers.  
If the detail about the pairs of Scarlet Eyes owned by Roland was made up just for misleading him, the Spiders would’ve gained a lot of time.  
Damn! He couldn’t afford the smallest error at this point of his mission.  
  


“And we’re done! Say hello to your dad for me, okay?” Both Fedora and Kurapika turned in the direction of the voice. Octavia had a pair of lifeless chestnut eyes with dark circles underneath, her light brown hair was tied up in a messy braid, her fragile body shaking a little. She was far from the spoiled brat type he was thinking about, and he felt kind of guilty to let his prejudices take over his judgment.  
The way she stood there, totally unconcerned about a stranger sitting on her couch, completely impassable in front of her doctor’s greetings, how her face didn’t change a single bit when Fedora asked how it went left Kurapika speechless.  
  


“She’s always dazed after a session, I’ll escort both of you to your room.” And again, not a single reaction.  
Kurapika followed Fedora through the tangled labyrinth of corridors inside the manor, nothing but pictures of exotic places hanged on the walls. Everything in the household was kept lowkey, with all that could add a little bit of personal touch at the bare minimum, the only things that distinguished the Kiercherner’s mansion from a sample in a designer magazine were a bunch of scented candles here and there and a burned plushie left on the living room’s armchair.  
Fedora stopped in front of a white security door.  
  
“This is Octavia’s room.” She turned to him. “You’ll sleep here as well-“ Kurapika went wide-eyed.  
He liked to have his privacy after all.  
And Octavia was a girl.

He still wanted to be respectful and didn’t want to cause embarrassing situations.  
And sharing a room meant he was stuck with her, with little to no time to pursue his research without being caught.

Fedora suppressed a laugh.  
  


“There’s a connecting door. Octavia is a bit hostile when it comes to sharing things.” As he stepped inside, the emptiness of her room made him shrug. White plain walls, black bedsheets, flowers that surely had seen better times, everything in that room screamed death.  
And the security door.  
Why there was the need to take such measures?

“Door closes ad 10 PM and opens again at 9 AM.” Octavia jumped as the woman patted her head.  
Her gaze wandered between her hands and the blonde guy in front of her.  
She was used to strangers invading her personal space, but she didn’t expect to be followed around by someone around her age.  
It was embarrassing as hell.  
Kurapika seemed way too serious, such a pity in her opinion, nor that she would have preferred another former gangster dealing with his first white hair, or someone who believed she was actually deaf, but it didn’t felt right for some reasons in her way to damaged head.  
  


Everything before her ninth year of life was partially erased, some of the memories came back in her dreams but the vivid images were way too twisted to be detached from what actually happened.  
Her dad said it was normal for the ones who lived a traumatic experience, but she couldn’t even remember what her real name was.

She stuck with Octavia.

“I’ll be in the kitchen if you need me.” Fedora stopped her trail of thoughts with her loud voice. “Be friendly _sweetie pie_.” Octavia glared at her.  
  
_Do you really think it was necessary?!  
_  
Fedora winked at her before leaving the room.  
Octavia knew the reason why so many people run away after dealing with her, and it never felt like a big deal. Her dad was offering a really high salary and money ruled the world. But she could sense Kurapika couldn’t care less about money.  
The whole situation felt wrong without a reason.  
Kurapika in a suit felt wrong without a reason.  
His emotionless face felt wrong without a reason.  
But why?  
  
She didn’t know him. She had never seen his face before that afternoon, so why everything about him bothered Octavia so much.  
  


“How old are you?” Escaped from her lips briefly.

Octavia hadn’t very unique features: a pair of big chestnut eyes, a freckled button nose, rosy cheeks, full lips and light brown hair, but there was still something scarily familiar in her. Not that he couldn't have seen someone like her before, he had been moving around since he was 12, but the way her eyes studied him, her brows frowning at his slightest movement made him wonder if she felt the same.

“I’m 18.”

Eighteen.  
She was being looked after by someone two years older than her.  
Fedora would’ve sensed immediately if his intentions were wrong, but there was still something that made her nerves tense. Octavia didn’t speak with everyone, and that lead people to think she was just shy -or mentally ill-, she spoke when she had to. She didn’t care about everything around her, but she had this strange hunch that made her curious. It was funny how everyone thought she was a weak little girl dealing with trauma, she certainly had problems, but she was just acting bratty in her own way. She just learned to detach from everything that could make her angry or scared.  
  
“I’m 16, by the way.” Kurapika just nodded.  
Octavia quickly understood she wasn’t the only one having a weird hunch.  
Both of them knew the whole situation needed to be handled carefully, one wrong word and the possibilities to get to know something would be zeroed.  
  
“You sure have an accent.” Noted Octavia while undoing her braid, tons of bronze locks falling over her back.  
  
“Which kind of accent?” Asked the blonde with a confused face.  
Kurta was his mother tongue, but no one before pointed any kind of accent.  
  
“An accent.” Stated her back.  
Kurapika sighed.  
  
“That means nothing.” Octavia frowned tilling her head.  
What a know-it-all.  
  
“It means everything.” The brunette stopped for a minute, the feeling to revive something that had already happened slowly spreading through her mind. She shook her head, she was probably still high on something and that was only a side effect.  
  
  
Nights weren’t easy for Octavia, whenever nightmares weren’t bothering her, she still struggled to sleep. Being alone with her thoughts was something her mind couldn’t bear and she couldn’t recall the last time she slept well without medicine. It was hard. Really hard.  
Octavia shut her eyes close as soon as she felt her body slowly became number and number, hoping her dreams wouldn’t destroy her weak mind anymore.  
  
_The sun rays painted the grass a light shade of golden, matching with the butterflies that posed here and there. Birds chirping on the nearby trees made impossible to hear any movement.  
  
The little girl sighed.  
No wonder it was always her that had to search for the others.  
  
But it was almost impossible to stay focused._

**_“Oi! Hurry up or you’ll end up seeking again!”_ ** _Scolded her brother as he picked an apple.  
Her eyes went up, in the direction of the voice, looking at him under the branch he was sitting over.  
  
“ **I don’t know where they went…”** Said the brunette with a sad smile, before he jumped in front of her, landing easily on a soft green cushion.  
  
“ **That’s the point of hide-and-seek, Little one.”** Answered patting her soft hair._

_Her brother was older than her, much much older, and one of the best warriors out of the tribe, she found really hard to believe he was actually her brother at all, and she wasn’t the only one.  
Her freckled nose went up a little, before letting out another sigh.  
  
**“You know cheating is wrong, right?”** Started her brother as he put his hands on her shoulders.  
The little girl nodded._

**_“So let’s keep this secret, okay?”_ ** _Added before pointing out at some bushes near a massive hollow tree. Her smile revealed a couple of missing teeth and her eyes lit up.  
  
**“Yes!”** She squirmed.  
Her little hands lifted a bit of her scarlet tunic so she could run faster, jumping over some rocks and branches. She didn’t particularly care about the flowers she was stepping over as she came closer and closer to the place her brother spotted some of the players. Slowing her pace, she casually started walking while looking around, but everything seemed quiet.  
The starting point was now free and she knew she was taking a big risk, but her brother's sight was almost unbeatable and he didn’t have any reason to tell her a lie.  
As she got closer to the hollow tree, blonde locks started to peep out from the cavity.  
The little girl grinned.  
  
**“Gotcha!”** The blonde boy puffed._

_Another kid popped out from the near bush. Brown hair, grey eyes, and a tunic similar to the one she was wearing.  
  
**“I told you this place was too easy!”** Mocked after stepping out completely.  
The blonde boy glared at him.  
  
**“Pairo! You could make us win!”** The namely Pairo laughed.  
  
**“Oh… you’re right…”** The little girl stood triumphantly in front of the tree, hands on her hips and a cocky smile.  
  
**“Next time it’s up to you!”** Said throwing her fist in the air.  
The blonde jumped out of the hollow, shaking his head.  
  
**“I won’t be there.”** The girl narrowed her eyes.  
  
**“Why?”** She simply asked.  
  
**“I’m going on an expedition.”** Said the other, shaking off the dirt from his blue tunic.  
  
**“That means nothing!”** Protested the little girl.  
  
**“That means everything.”** Corrected him._

**Author's Note:**

> Hi everyone! I'm Ellie and this is my first HxH work, it's all from a headcanon of mine and this is a small chapter to see if my idea can work. The story takes place in the year and a half between YorkShin City arc and the Dark Continent Expedition arc. English is not my mother tongue so any kind of adjustment is appreciated! Feel free to let me know what you think! I also opened a side blog dedicated to my works on Tumblr, since I'm pretty shy (obnimi for those who asked) if you want to share your headcanons (please do) you can find me there!  
> ♡


End file.
